The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement funded California State PIRC 1 and Project INSPIRE from 2006-2011 (Grant # U310A0600096). The goals of Project INSPIRE were:

• Identify the needs of underserved families and help them understand their rights and responsibilities in the education system.
• Develop parent leadership skills to support their children’s education.
• Build partnerships between community organizations, schools, and families.
• Train parent leaders to work with other parents to effectively participate in local school reform efforts.
• Inform parents about the provisions in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation for parent participation—their rights and responsibilities.

The U.S. Department of Education did not renew funding after 2011 or provide new funding for PIRCs to continue.

Read the National PTA Statement on PIRC Funding Elimination of FY2011 Spending Plan.

• Module 1 - Parent Involvement: Helping Your Child Achieve
• Module 2 - Building Bridges: Family and School Connections
• Module 3 - Using Technology and Online Resources
• Module 4 - Understanding the U.S. System of Education
• Module 5 - Basic Components of No Child Left Behind
• Module 6 - California Academic Content and Performance Standards
• Module 7 - System of School Accountability
• Module 8 - Academic Programs
• Module 9 - Role of Parent Committees
• Module 10 - Beyond High School
• Module 11 - Virtual Pre-K
• Module 12 - Goal Setting

Project INSPIRE has conducted a quasi-experimental, longitudinal research study on the relationship of parental engagement to student achievement at sixteen school-based centers. This study randomly selected pairs of a Treatment School and a Matched Control School from the pool of chronically under-performing Program Improvement Schools in partnering districts. The school-based intensive parent leadership development was provided to parents, teachers, principals, and community members at each Treatment School. The Matched Control School did not receive access to the intensive parent leadership development program.

Preliminary findings are consistent with those from other research efforts examining the relationship between parental engagement and student success at school (C. Nye, J. Schwartz, and H. Turner, 2006; Henderson and Mapp, 2008). Project INSPIRE’s findings for both Year 3 and Year 4 show that Treatment Students (those whose parents completed and implemented what they learned from Project INSPIRE’s leadership development program) realized a statistically significant improvement in the rate and level of academic growth compared to their peers (Control Students) whose parents had not participated in the leadership program, as measured by English Language Arts and Mathematics scores on the California Standards Test (CST). Students whose parents participated in Project INSPIRE at treatment schools increased their CST Mathematics score by 18.5 points in 2009 and 26.5 points in 2010 and increased their CST English Language Arts score by 12.8 points in 2009 and 13.5 points in 2010!  Moreover, the average rate and level of academic growth of Treatment Students was also greater than the average rate and level of academic growth of their peers statewide.

These preliminary findings suggest that when parents from chronically under-performing schools are engaged, their children can significantly improve their learning. As the majority of the families in Treatment Schools were of color (85%), low-income (88%), and English Language Learners (79%), these findings echo Mapp’s conclusion (2009) that the relationship between parent engagement and student achievement holds across families of all economic, racial/ethnic, and educational backgrounds and for students at all ages.

For more detailed information on Project INSPIRE research:

• Building Family Support for Student Achievement (Ramirez, 2010)
• When Parents are Engaged, the Schools Get Better! (Quezada, 2011)
• CA PIRC-1 Project INSPIRE 2009-2010 Evaluation Report

For information regarding Project 2 INSPIRE, (a continuation of Project INSPIRE’s work) contact the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE): www.bilingualeducation.org or call (626) 814-4441.

Project_2_INSPIRE brochure

• Summer 2010
• Summer 2010 - Spanish

• California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE)
• Project Inspire
• Virtual Pre-K

• Sharing Inspiration: Communication with Our Children (3.5 minutes)
• Sharing Inspiration: Parent Volunteers in Schools (3.5 minutes)
• Sharing Inspiration: Communication between Families and Schools (3.5 minutes)